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Rangewriter

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Rangewriter

Tag Archives: war

Gallery

Can collective tears wash away the damage?

18 Wednesday May 2022

Posted by rangewriter in Everything else

≈ 25 Comments

Tags

Buffalo Mass Murder, climate change, History repeating itself, mass shootings, respect, self-righteousness, war, white supremeacy

This gallery contains 4 photos.

I am emotionally resilient. I navigate grief more easily than other people. I have an enormous capacity for darkness, blood, …

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Gallery

Winter of Fire

20 Sunday Mar 2022

Posted by rangewriter in Everything else

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

America, conviction, freedom, history, peaceful protest, sacrifice, the future, Ukraine, war, Winter of Fire

The war in Ukraine is on everyone’s mind. How could it not be? The victims look so like us. So …

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Perched on the edge of damnation

08 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by rangewriter in Travel & Adventure

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

Hiroshima, history, Nagasaki, nuclear war, war

The younger we are, the less history means to us. It isn’t until we have lived through a few history-making events that we begin paying attention to the world outside our tiny bubble of self-absorption. The first historically significant event to break through my bubble was President Kennedy’s assassination. From that point on, world events began to bookmark my life. The world became smaller on that day. Or my awareness of the world grew larger.

Each generation bookmarks their history from a new event. And each new event eclipses the ones before it. The skin-crawling enormity of 9/11 looks tame on the pages of a history book. Atrocities are no modern invention. Cataclysmic destruction is not new. In fact, nothing the United States has endured equals the horror that we visited upon Japan 20 years before history became real for me.

I learned about Hiroshima and Nagasaki in school. The words represented the end of WWII and the opening of a nuclear Pandora’s box. But never did the horror invade my being as it did while I watched the HBO documentary film, “White Light, Black Rain.”

Writer and director, Steven Okazaki, has combined old footage of the bombings and their aftermath with heart-breakingly poignant interviews with 14 Japanese survivors, now in their 70s and 80s, as well as from 4 Americans who were somewhat unwittingly involved in the destruction. We hear first-hand accounts from these people about a moment frozen in time for them. This was the moment their bubble of innocence was shattered. It was the moment that destroyed all hope of a normal life for the 210,000 survivors of the two attacks, 85% of whom were civilians.

The bombs pulverized Nagasaki, a city with a population of about 263,000, and Hiroshima, population 350,000. Rescue workers scavenged to find the living among the pieces and parts and ash of corpses buried under collapsed structures. Orphaned children were shoved into under-staffed and under-supplied medical facilities, where their burns were scraped and medicated by horrified aid workers. Their injuries caused a lifetime of pain, disfigurement, and abandonment. No one wanted to look at them or to be reminded of that infamous day. These 14 survivors are remarkable in their acceptance of their fate, in their lack of animosity toward Americans, and in their ability to live their lives despite constant pain, radiation sickness, multiple cancers, and humiliating deformities. Remarkably, this documentary is not an indictment of American brutality. It recognizes Japan’s role in the war and acknowledges Truman’s rationale “to save as many American lives as possible.” “White Lights, Black Rain” is a powerful reminder that the world has now magnified by 400,000 the nuclear capacity to reproduce the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

If I could have one dream come true, it would be to lock each and every world leader into the same screening room, where they would be forced to view this documentary and consider the ramifications of a world that is perched on the edge of damnation.

Gallery

Casting stones is tribal justice

04 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by rangewriter in Everything else

≈ 26 Comments

Tags

Bowe Bergdahl, deserter, hero, Idaho, idealism, soldiers, treason, tribalism, war

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Sgt Bowe Bergdahl was born and raised in my state of Idaho. For five long years, his community has agonized, …

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Watching the gathering storm from inside the zoo

21 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by rangewriter in Everything else

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Adolf Hitler, Berlin, Erik Larson, fear, Fuhrer, Germany, history, intrigue, madness, non fiction, politics, power, war, William Dodd

This gallery contains 1 photo.

In the Garden of Beasts has consumed my life for a week. Author Erik Larson states in his acknowledgements: “There …

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Some of my favorite Blogs

  • Alles ist gut Great opportunity to practice reading German while enjoying photos, recipes, and adventure essays from across the pond.
  • Catterel Catherine’s blog is as esoteric as mine, filled with poetry, photos, and general ruminations.
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  • Denise Bush Photography Fine arts photography with a deep connection to the landscape
  • Explorumentary A sublime melding of the eye of a scientist with the visual and verbal poetry of an artist. Sue shares her hikes into some of the most remote regions of our glorious country.
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  • Jane's Heartsong Your heart will sing right along with Jane’s when you see how she captures the essence of life in the world outside her door.
  • Licht Years: Where are you going, where have you been? “Nirvana is this moment seen directly.” Susan Licht offers us nirvana in each of her lovely images. She excels at taking advantage of existing light to see into everyday objects. And how very fitting that her last name means “light.”
  • Musings of an old fart Independent and scrupulously-researched perspectives on current events
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  • Zeebra Designs & Destinations An artist’s eyes never rests, nor does Z. Living here and there, writing, teaching, beautifying and spreading joy where ever she goes.

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